2013-08-08
Explanation
This comic imagines a far future where robots have become the dominant intelligent beings, and humans are reduced to the role of malfunctioning gadgets. In the first panel, a robot calls tech support complaining that its new device "keeps wobbling around and emitting this high-pitched noise." The device in question is clearly a human baby, though the robot does not recognize it as a living being -- it just sees it as a broken piece of technology.
The tech support robot gives the classic IT troubleshooting advice: "Sorry, ma'''am. Please try turning it off and on again." The caller responds "Okay" and in the next panel, the robot is holding the now-limp, motionless baby and says "Oh great, now it'''s not working at all!" The dark implication is that the robot "turned off" the baby -- i.e., killed it -- and now cannot turn it back on again, because unlike machines, biological beings do not have an off switch that can be reversed.
The joke is a grim inversion of the standard tech support comedy bit (famously used in the TV show "The IT Crowd"), applied to a scenario where robots treat humans the way we treat our electronic devices. The votey panel shows the tech support robot asking "How old is your OS?" and the other responding "2 million years. Why?" -- referring to how long humans (Homo sapiens or the broader Homo genus) have existed, and treating human biology as an outdated operating system. The comic explores the dark humor in imagining a world where the roles of user and technology have been completely reversed.